James Hetfield Celebrates 51st Birthday Today

The Het makes me feel good about myself.  He's just one year younger than me and still rocks like a rabid wolverine with it's ass on fire.  He is our leader and he's yet to take that left turn into jerkville or irrelevance.

Unlike say, Dave Mustaine or Ted Nugent, James hasn't tried to lay his political views on his rock audience.  He hasn't sold out in the way that Steven Tyler of Aerosmith did (American Idol). When it comes to merchandising the band, the band has somehow managed to keep it cool, unlike KISS. The closest he's come to controversy is his professed love of hunting (and I don't think he'll lose any fans over that here).

Metallica has made one bad album. That's it. You almost can't even blame that album on them, you can only blame them for letting the producer have his way. A lot of those St. Anger songs sound just fine live, they just sounded bad on the c.d.

Back to the Het. He survived the crazy "Alcoholica" years. He "killed" Fred Durst on MTV's Celebrity Death Match. He hasn't beaten Lars to death (I actually like Lars, but he can be a bit much for some people).  He literally survived the flames of hell burning him all over.  Most of all, he is an absolute gentleman in person.

Happy Birthday Papa Het!